Happy Birthday, Victoria!

Hana's 4th Birthday: Day Of

The night before, we gave Annabelle water, crackers and a crumb of banana bread, per Hana's suggestion.

The next morning Hana woke up to balloons tied to the bottom of her bed

and a trail of streamer leading from her bedroom to her playroom!

It led right up to a brand new trampoline!

Annabelle had decorated the house for Hana's birthday!

Daddy got Hana a special birthday donut breakfast.

I let her pick anywhere she wanted to eat for her birthday so...

That night we went to Hana's favorite sushi restaurant for dinner. Yep, you heard me! She makes her daddy proud!

This particular sushi restaurant also has a hibachi side.

(heart-shaped fried rice)

What a great birthday! Now she's telling everyone she meets that she's about to be FIVE!

Hana's 4th Birthday Party

We baked the cupcakes the night before.

She decorated them the morning of her party.

I decorated one very special cupcake for one very special little girl.

She did all the rest.

She worked very hard to make each one uniquely exquisite.

(That's a word learned from Fancy Nancy)

Container #1

Container #2

Container #3

Once the cupcakes were finished, it was time to open one special present before the party.

I did not take a picture of the gift, it was a video. And you know how Blogger is with videos. You'll see what it was in a minute!

Hana wanted to have her birthday party at the gym where she takes gymnastics and attends preschool. Her school lunchroom is where we were going to eat the pizza and cupcakes. They had it all decorated for her!

Here's the completed cupcakes on their stand. Gorgeous!

Time to have some fun!

(The shiny new leotard was the gift she opened before the party!)

Even the adults got in on the fun!

Some not as voluntarily as others.

Parachute time!

Each of Hana's friends got to take a turn jumping on the parachute with her.

Then we spun Hana up in it

and popped her out of it!

They got hot pink birthday cake stamps on their hands and feet!

The Aggies were winning 61-0 in the other room!!!

Time to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday!

Wait! We forgot to eat the pizza first!

Okay, now we can eat the cupcakes.

And get our party favors.

Then the family came over to the house to watch her open presents.

She got lots of awesome gifts, like her boots and hat. Everyone really seemed to have a great time. I deem this birthday party another success!

Happy Birthday, Shirshank!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

You look like a monkey & you smell like one, too!

(heehee!)

Hope you have a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat day!

Countdown to Hana's 4th Birthday Party

Joe's Birthday Cake

Hana and I made Joe's birthday cake last weekend and something came over me. It had been a while since I baked anything and I started feeling creative. Here's my invention. Well, it's certainly not my very own invention. Surely someone else has done this or something similar before. I've actually seen a picture of a rainbow cake, but it was in perfect layers. I think it was made with individual colored cakes layered on top of one another. But this is my take on a rainbow cake:

Take 1 box of yellow cake mix (white would probably work best, but I had a yellow) and prepare as usual. Separate into bowls and add food coloring, the gel kind, to make whatever colors you like.

Pour into pan one at a time, careful to layer it rather than mix it. 

Bake as usual.

Get one beautiful girl to decorate it with icing

and sprinkles, of course!

Add candles.

Sing "Happy Birthday" (of course I couldn't get that video to load) and cut into it to see your beautiful creation.

Serve with ice cream and enjoy.

We certainly did!